Facebook users in the US and elsewhere have shared the picture of a woman in a hospital bed with claims that she was brutally mugged and authorities needed help to identify her. But the story is false: the woman survived a car accident in 2016, in which the driver was killed. The incident was covered by major US media outlets. The victim’s road to recovery was well-documented on social media; a year after the crash, she recorded a Facebook Live to thank her supporters. AFP Fact Check has previously drawn attention to the trend of sensationalist or panic-inducing posts being spread in US groups to increase followers or obtain personal data from users.

“We need urgent help identifying a young woman who was mugged, stabbed and left for dead on the roadside. She is in a coma right now & the deputies are not able to identify her because she doesn’t have an ID on her,” read a Facebook post with more than 1,000 shares on a yard sale group for New York residents.

It prompts users to “bump” the post to increase its visibility.

A screenshot of the false post

The same claim was posted in other US Facebook groups including here and here.

The false story also made its way to South Africa where a Facebook user asserted that the woman in the photo was in the country’s administrative capital, Pretoria. Users in the comment section were, however, quick to point out that it was possibly a hoax as it was circulating in other groups across the world.

A screenshot of the false post shared...

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